BMC comes up with Rs 7,000 cr plan to resurface roads

Following the Bombay high court's directive the Bruhanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has come out with a Rs 7,000 crore master plan to resurface the Mumbai roads. The BMC is to submits its plan to the court by September 5. The high court, a few days ago had taken suo motu action against the BMC and other agencies for Mumbai's bad roads and accidents caused by potholes.

The BMC said that under the plan, roads will be divided into two categories-cement and asphalt-and will be given priority in terms of traffic density and those that are in bad shape. The civic body has drafted the master plan with a macro picture for re-laying roads with a four-year vision- from 2013 to 2017.

According to BMC, design consultants will be appointed and all roads more than 60 ft wide will be concretised. Experts opine that for every 5 km road, 15 per cent-20 per cent should be resurfaced every year, as the lifeline of an asphalt road is only five years.

As contractors do not maintain roads, BMC plans to include a maintenance clause in the tender. It will also explore new technology like ultra thin white topping(UTWT) for roads with low traffic density, parking lots and also other material like polymer modified bitumen (PMB).